Sunday, 2 September 2012

New School, New Bag

I feel like I have done well with my sewing over the holidays. I managed to get a few things ticked off my list. I have left this latest project a bit late even for my standards. Boo starts school on Tuesday and while I have finished her uniform skirts, the school bag still remained undone. Big sigh... panic over, all finished.We bought a really cute oilcloth Cath Kidston backpack at Christmas but it was bigger than we thought and it swamps her. So a smaller bag was needed. Enough to hold a few reading books, pencil case and a snack.My mum bought me 'Growing up Sew Liberated' by Meg McElwee for my birthday earlier this year and I have enjoyed reading it, getting inspiration from it and, thankfully, I have sewn from it.I wanted to make this Naturalist Scavenger Hunt Bag for school as it is the perfect size and I think it might be easier for her to carry as it goes across the body rather than on her back. She is uncoordinated when it comes to putting her arms through the straps of a backpack.I chose an Amy Butler print for my main fabric and a solid brown as a contrast. I wanted to keep it fairly neutral for now as I haven't decided what colour her winter coat will be. I plan on making her the School Days Coat from Oliver + S. I would like a heathery purple colour in a boiled wool fabric but it will really depend on what I can get my hands on when the time comes. Whatever I end up with, I will just make her another bag in colours to match! I guess that means I wasn't put off from making another bag againI organised a free Sunday to get last minute things done (by which I mean hubby was put in charge of the girls and told to leave me in peace!). I had already cut out the pieces beforehand and I made traces of all the freehand pieces as well, these are the ones that you just get given the length x width for and have to draft yourself. I thought it would be handy to have everything prepped incase I made the bag again.

little inner pocket under the flap

It was a simple pattern with good instructions and I breezed through the first half of the instructions. The strap is made up of 2 parts; a long main piece and a short adjustable piece, secured with velcro and threaded through a ribbon.Making it for the first time I wondered if I was doing it right and had to read from stages 8 - 11 a few times before I got my head around it. but it is a clever way of making the strap adjust without a using a buckle.

I only had velcro that was sticky on one of the sides instead of plain old sew on velcro. This is not what I would recommend using if you are considering it. My needle didn't like going through it and it gunked my thread up. This made the bobbin thread refuse to come up and loop through the sticky thread and so it was a bit of a nightmare. I struggled through but will admit that one long side of the velcro is unsewn. Stuck down but unsewn.I do have this stuff on hand which is amazing for removing sticky patches from just about anything. (As it says on the bottle). I wiped my needle over and it was good as new.

The strap has an eyelet on the end for a bit of detail.

And incase you wanted to know what happens when you DONT use the hard plastic banging disk underneath when you whack it with a hammer.....

A good job I used one of the childrens blocks underneath instead of just whacking it straight onto my table. Cough cough.After the strap, the rest of the bag comes together quickly. It is just a simple case of sewing a inner liner and an outer shell both by the same method, basting the strap in place, and sewing it all together inside out before pulling it through to the outside.

I am really glad I tried this pattern. My daughter loves it and it will be perfect for its purpose.

One thing to note is that the bag has no interlining and so is quite floppy. If I make it again I will reinforce it with some so it has some shape on its own.